The Quarantined Teen

The Quarantined Teen
By: Ava Barnes, Olivia Isaacs, Marissa Janis, Emma Newell and Faith Yeley

By Ava Barnes:

Social Distancing is a new and quite unfamiliar topic that has surely taken the United States by surprise. For many, this is a motivating time that gives us an opportunity to complete tasks you usually wouldn’t have time for. For others, this makes us less eager to work or study. In my personal opinion, this time is almost no different, except we are being forced to stay in our houses. I still wake up, complete my school work, go to online dance, shower, do homework, and go to bed. However, I’d be lying if I said that being home wasn’t frustrating and demotivating. And I’m sure you would be, too.

The thing I miss the most about regular, everyday life is the routine. Doing the same thing everyday really keeps me on track and productive. Messing with that system threw me off for a little while but finally, after about two weeks of quarantine, I finally got back in the swing of things. There are also some positives about being detained in the house. I enjoy using my free time to get things done around the house, like organizing or cleaning. I also work out to get ahead in dance, which is something I surprisingly appreciate. As much as I miss seeing the people at school and everywhere else, quarantine isn’t all terrible.

By Olivia Isaacs:

Quarantine has been the strangest thing that has ever happened to any of the teenagers these days. No hanging out with friends, no sports, and no everyday things like going to the store. For me, quarantine has actually been pretty nice. Life is slower, and we have the time to do things like going out on the boat and taking bike rides. I do miss my friends, though, and it’s been sad only being able to see their faces when we FaceTime. For the most part, quarantine has been a generally nice experience for me and my family. I’ve been able to cope and have actually been able to achieve some things that I usually am not bored enough to do.

I have to wake up at 8:30 on school days, and I finish my work around 2:30. After school, I ride my bike, make a smoothie, work on decorating my room, mess around with the piano, and eat a lot of snacks. During quarantine, I decorated a whole wall in my room with pictures from magazines. I learned a bunch of songs on the piano, and I spent all of my money online shopping (oops). I FaceTime my friends a lot, and it’s been really peaceful not having any rehearsals or places to go. I do miss normal life, but this vacation-like time is great. You can sleep in! You can binge a whole TV series (trust me, I have)! You can discover that you’re actually great at freestyle rapping! Make sure to think outside the box, stay active, stay hopeful, and stay safe!

By Marissa Janis:

During this pandemic, everyone had to adjust to a new life of self distancing in order to ensure everyone’s safety. Before this I thought social distancing meant just not seeing my friends out shopping or at school everyday. Little did I know that true social distancing means isolation from everyone by my mom and dad. It certainly is a different situation than what we’re used to. It’s as if our lives were put on a repeated pause.

For the past few weeks we have been doing school virtually, which has been a huge adjustment from actually being at school with all our usual social interaction. I have had to focus more on listening to exactly what my teacher is saying, since I’m not there to ask the questions I might normally ask in class. It has required me to be more self reliant too. I want to give a huge shout out of thanks to all of my teachers for encouraging us as well as all the time and effort they put into preparing the virtual lessons. I am very grateful and thankful for them and their hard work.

In my quarantine time at home, I have enjoyed spending time with my family which is just my mom and dad. I still miss seeing my friends and being able to go out and about to shop or go to the movies and restaurants. However, I think our pets are really happy that we can stay home with them all the time. I know that my cat, Blue Barkley, is very excited that I am home with him. He’s quite adventurous and loves when I take him for walks in his pet stroller. I also have enjoyed my time outside by going on bike rides. Since staying at home more I’ve been able to spend more quality time with my parents and am actually enjoying it. I’ve been able to tackle more organization projects that I have been putting off as well. So while social distancing has been problematic, it actually has had some positive aspects in my life. For that, I am blessed.

By Emma Newell:

Since the recent CoronaVirus outbreak, a lot has changed in everyday life. I have gotten to spend a lot more time with my family. It is very different staying at home all the time, and I especially miss seeing friends and going to youth group. Although I miss going out, not everything about being quarantined is bad.

What if this disruption to our normal lives is good? It is a time for us to pause, breathe, and set our minds back on what is important in life. Things can get so busy, and it is easy to lose track of our goals. This unexpected change is a perfect time to strengthen our relationship with God. We want to stay busy, but God wants us to be still, and look to him. Things may be stressful, not knowing what the future will bring, but this is a great reminder that God is still in control.